As an innovative way to alleviate poverty, a number of social entrepreneurial approaches have focused on enabling poor people to help themselves through the power of entrepreneurship. Micro-credit has provided billions of dollars in start-up and growth capital to encourage micro-entrepreneurs around the world to launch their own enterprises to lift themselves out of poverty.

The majority of the methods employed are designed to provide financial resources – and while this has been successful in some circumstances, it has not been as effective in many others. Examples around the world suggest that financial capital alone may not be sufficient to spur effective entrepreneurship among people who may lack business acumen, a vetted opportunity, and a network of advisers.

To unleash more micro-entrepreneurs around the world, social entrepreneurs have begun moving to models that reduce risk for the micro-entrepreneur. Following the growth of micro-credit, the micro-franchise approach has gained traction by providing a proven business model to micro-entrepreneurs that may lack an entrepreneurial opportunity. Moving beyond micro-credit and micro-franchise, a new approach called the MicroConsignment Model has emerged as a first step on the ladder of micro-entrepreneurship at the Base of the Pyramid.

The MCM – developed by Ashoka Fellow Greg Van Kirk – acts as an initial distribution channel to provide access to basic products – eyeglasses, water filtration buckets, cook stoves and solar lamps – for rural villagers in "Base of the Pyramid" markets. It creates opportunities for villagers to act as micro-entrepreneurs to their fellow citizens, arming the individuals with the education, training and products necessary to successfully market and sell essential products in developing countries – especially in very rural areas.

It also lowers the barriers to entrepreneurship by providing micro-entrepreneurs with an opportunity to 'test drive' a business by investing only their time. Equally important, it reduces potential negative outcomes for micro-entrepreneurs by eliminating the need for start-up capital and avoiding financial failure because the goods are consigned – eliminating the potential for the havoc that can result from outstanding loans or failed franchises. In this way, the MCM adheres to the Hippocratic Oath of development: first, do no harm.

The Chinese proverb suggests, “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” In much the same way, the MicroConsignment Model provides micro-entrepreneurs with the necessary business training to market and sell products to other consumers at the Base of the Pyramid. Moving beyond teaching, the MCM also provides micro-entrepreneurs the pole, the tackle and a fishing partner. The pole and tackle include previously vetted products that add substantial economic or health related benefits to rural villagers as well as centralized marketing and administrative systems and a network of people to help support the entrepreneurial efforts. In this way, the MCM facilitates the development of new approaches that fit between donations (which are often short-term oriented and not responsive to consumer wants) and large multinational corporations (which are often initially resistant to enter markets where distribution channels are underdeveloped and margins are lower).

Over the last seven years, the MicroConsignment Model has been developed and expanded throughout several regions of Guatemala. Initially developed for the distribution of cook stoves, it has expanded to a more complete basket of products including eyeglasses, vegetable seeds, solar lights and water purifiers. Additional product testing has begun on energy products, hearing aids, and water pumps. Building on this successful implementation in Guatemala, the MCM has grown to Ecuador, Nicaragua and South Africa. Further expansion is now being evaluated and/or pursued by other Ashoka Fellows in other parts of Central America, South America, and Africa – while additional products and partnerships are extending the reach and impact of MicroConsignment programs already in practice.

Though the current applications, the MicroConsignment Model has provided more and more micro-entrepreneurs with income opportunities and additional villagers are gaining access to basic products that they would likely not otherwise have reasonable access to.

There has been tremendous growth within business schools focused on the creation of economic and social value including corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and social entrepreneurship. Many have encouraged a specific focus on better education and understanding of markets in the developing world – and other Base of the Pyramid markets.

Social Entrepreneur Corps is one example of an experiential approach to furthering these educational opportunities. The program, which has partnered with top business schools and leading social entrepreneurship programs, allows students to spend 8 weeks in the developing world working side-by-side with micro-entrepreneurs executing the MicroConsignment Model. To date, students from schools including Columbia University, Duke University, Miami University of Ohio and Notre Dame have sent hundreds of students through Social Entrepreneur Corps.

The innovation of the MicroConsignment Model provides such a mechanism that can be scaled to contribute to the alleviation of poverty of millions. However, the MCM is just the beginning. To tackle poverty more globally, the MCM should serve as a starting point that offers potential partnership opportunities for multinational corporations to learn about Botton of the Pyramid markets and to test market products and service in those markets. It also offers an opportunity for those same corporations to learn from and contribute to the development of best practices in these markets – and to scale social impact to alleviate poverty in the short-term and have significant economic impact in the long-term.

After a long career at Barron's, I joined Forbes as San Francisco bureau chief in December 2010. I've been writing about technology and investing for more than 25 years. With the Tech Trade, I've picked up where I left off when I was writing the Tech Trader Daily blog at Ba...